English Vocabulary

digit - figure - finger

User since 2006
Posts: 2715

26 March 2007

Who'd be so kind as to help me making the difference between
digit vs figure
digit vs finger ?
I count on a competent and helpful person kind of a Silky or a Jean-Pierre to enlighten me.
Thanks in advance.

2 comments

Jim Swashbuckler
User since 2007
Posts: 5
26 March 2007

a digit = un chiffre (au sens un caractère). A number is made of several digits.
figures = les chiffres (dans le sens les résultats, les prix). Last quarter sales figures were disapointing.

Jim
a digit = un chiffre (au sens un caractère). A number is made of several digits. figures = les chiffres (dans le sens les résultats, les prix). Last quarter sales figures were disapointing. Jim
AhQ ['a: kiu]
User since 2006
Posts: 2715
27 March 2007

Well copied. Thanks, Jim.

Though I wonder whether 'figure' can't sometimes be used to name a written/typed sign, synonym of digit. For instance people say: "the inflation is coming in double figures"; "the quarter results came to six figures".
On the one hand I read "a three-digit number" but on the other hand "a six-figures number".
Well copied. Thanks, Jim. Though I wonder whether 'figure' can't sometimes be used to name a written/typed sign, synonym of digit. For instance people say: "the inflation is coming in double figures"; "the quarter results came to six figures". On the one hand I read "a three-digit number" but on the other hand "a six-figures number".

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